Brand Overview: Da Vinci Paint Company

Da Vinci Paint Company is an American professional paint brand founded in 1975 (not to be confused with the German paintbrush maker also called Da Vinci: they are unrelated.) A family-run, small-batch company, they make watercolor, gouache, and oil paints in their mill in Orange County in southern California. At this time, they offer 127 colors in their watercolor range. They’re known for offering large sizes, including watercolors in 37 ml tubes, at relatively inexpensive prices for American painters, though importers in the rest of the world may find them expensive.

Their watercolor binder is gum-arabic based, and they do not use honey or ox-gall. As a result, some find them to be low-flow. Watercolor pans are the same formulation as tubes. 

Da Vinci also makes paints that are relabeled under other brands, especially house brands for art supply stores. They made the American Journey brand for the former Cheap Joe’s art store, which has now been relaunched as Journey Art Stuff. For Canadians, it’s worth noting that Da Vinci makes Opus Essentials, the house brand for the art supply store Opus, which has multiple locations in British Columbia. While these brands may have some slight variations in what colors are available, for the most part the below opinions will apply to those brands as well.

You can support the blog by shopping with our affiliate links to the Da Vinci Paints website. 

Our hot takes and favorite colors

Logan

Da Vinci is my favorite paint company! Not only are they relatively affordable domestically for me, they just suit me really well. I find DVP’s colors really intense and bright, including colors that are weak in other brands. The brand I would most compare them to is Holbein. Both brands have a really nice brush feel: neither too sticky nor too hard, just goldilocks perfect. I also find that DVP’s paints are wonderful for grading evenly, which is great for skies.

Special mention also goes to their dot card, or as they aptly call it, “big dot samples.” They offer huge dots in a series of clamshell cases. I keep a set of their dot cards in my drawer – this gives me my ability to produce color tests and artist palette profile paintouts without having an enormous personal paint library. [Buy Dot Samples]

It will be hard for me to limit the list of favorite colors since I get most of my basics from Da Vinci, so I’ll just name my top favorites that I think are most worth getting from DVP over other brands.

• Quinacridone Red (PR209) is my favorite version of one of my favorite pigments. This bright pinky coral is my secret weapon for sunsets and DVP’s version goes down so smooth, it’s perfect for sky gradients. [Buy Quinacridone Red]
• Red Rose Deep (PV19) is my ideal Quin Rose: it’s a bit warmer/redder than the standard but still definitively pink rather than red, and it gets lusciously dark and deep. [Buy Red Rose Deep]
• Cobalt Blue (PB28) is often weak in other brands but DVP offers plenty of strong pigment. I thought I didn’t like Cobalt Blue when I’d only tried the weak Daniel Smith version, but I love it from Da Vinci and find it one of my top favorite reliable palette staples. [Buy Cobalt Blue]
• Terra Cotta (PR102) is a semi-opaque earth orange. I use it like Burnt Sienna or Transparent Red Oxide; it mixes wonderful browns with blue. It is just a lovely earth color mixed or unmixed, and it has a soft, gentle character similar to Venetian Red. [Buy Terra Cotta]

Colors to avoid:

• I find the Naples Yellow Deep weirdly milky owing to its inclusion of PY53 Nickel Dioxine Yellow. Wish they’d offer a pure PBr24.
• I’ve tried Nickel Azo Yellow twice from them and both times I thought it smelled weird, but I know some folks who had good experiences so who knows. I’m known to be a super smeller.

Veronica

I am a big fan of Da Vinci because they’re a good value in the US and have a solid selection. They’re also very well-behaved; rarely does a color of theirs disappoint. I currently have about 15 tubes of DV lying around, and I used to have their dot card so I’ve sampled most of their selection.

My favorite colors are:

• Violet Iron Oxide (PR101): This is one of my favorite paints of all time. I love purple, and I love brown, and I love purplish-browns, and this one is the best. If I could only have one earth, this would be it. I put it in all my urban sketching palettes and have used it for sand, shadows in the sea, and to make all kinds of browns. It’s easy to neutralize the purplish tone with yellow or orange paints (an earth yellow does well here), and you still get something interesting going on because of the purplish granulation peeking through. [Buy Violet Iron Oxide]
• Benzimida Orange Deep (PO36): I haven’t seen this pigment much in other brands, so this is one to add to your Da Vinci order after you’ve tracked down Violet Iron Oxide. It looks kind of dark in swatches online that show it next to a blazing PO71 or whatever, but in person it’s just a really nice orangey-orange. I don’t know, I’m not a big orange connoisseur, but this one is just nice. And it’s orange. It’s a nice orange. If you’re at the point in your painting journey where you feel like you want an orange, this is… an orange that is nice. [Buy Benzimida Orange Deep]
• Phthalo Turquoise (PB16): I just love this pigment, and I also love PG36 (phthalo green yellow shade, usually acquired from Holbein because the name “bamboo green” is fun, sorry Da Vinci), so I use PB16+ PG36 in a lot of my palettes rather than PB15+PG7 (phthalo blue green shade and phthalo green blue shade… yeah using the pigment codes is easier for those two). It’s a super pretty and useful turquoise and Da Vinci, as usual, has a solid version of it. [Buy Phthalo Turquoise]

Colors to avoid:

• Pastels generally: These were chalky and not my favorite when I tried them from the dot card, which isn’t the most fair way to try paints, but I usually go with Holbein when I want pastel shades.

Erica

Da Vinci has become a bit of a goldilocks brand to me; it’s my go to for staple pigments. Where Daniel Smith paints tend to shrink and fall out of the pan, Da Vinci paints always set perfectly in the pan – not one of my pans has cracked, pulled away from the edges, or stayed sticky! They are easy to rewet, packed with pigment, and a pleasant texture on the brush. Their consistent quality and value makes this brand an easy favorite for me.

Da Vinci’s color range covers the basics and some interesting mixes, but unfortunately is narrower than that of other manufacturers. They don’t carry some of my preferred palette staples, like Potter’s Pink (PR233) or Green Gold (PY129)*. I also wish their range of earths was a bit broader. Make no mistake – you’ll have no trouble pulling together a satisfying palette from this brand. The pigments they do offer are solid, and the range continues to improve as they release new paints.

* Ed. note: They used to carry PY129 but it was discontinued in 2025 due to difficulty obtaining the pigment from their supplier.

Favorites: 

• Cerulean Blue Genuine (PB36) – a goldilocks color for me with right balance of brightness, softness, and granulation to be versatile enough for both skies and as a mixer. [Buy Cerulean Blue Genuine]
• Indian Red (PR101) – I can’t mention Cerulean Blue Genuine without mentioning Indian Red. I am simply obsessed with the greys and purples this pair makes. It’s my go to for clouds. [Buy Indian Red]
• Raw Umber (PBr7) – Now this was a sleeper hit for me. This cool brown is a critical mixer for me. I use it often to deepen other colors and mix a range of greys and browns. [Buy Raw Umber]
• Cobalt Blue (PB28) – I admit I didn’t fully understand the appeal of this pigment until I tried this version. It won’t replace ultramarine for me, but it’s just perfect for skies. [Buy Cobalt Blue]

Honorable mentions: Stormy Blue (PB60/PR101) is a gorgeous deep blue; Violet Iron Oxide (PR101) is a unique, highly granulating earthy purple; Ultramarine Violet (PV15) has more tinting strength than other versions of this pigment; Raw Sienna (PBr7) has a lovely soft glow

Colors to avoid:

• Titan Buff (PW6) – Da Vinci’s version is dirtier and cooler than other brands, which I don’t like as much as other versions. I also find it a bit streaky.

Do you have other brands you want to write about that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know in the comments below or contact @sandravink.art on Instagram.